Plain Language Summaries of Campbell’s systematic reviews are now available. These summaries are published as part of our commitment to helping people use and interpret research evidence. Crime and Justice Education International Development Social Welfare

This Campbell systematic review examines the effects of closed circuit television (CCTV) on property crime and violent crime. The review reports on whether using CCTV results in crime displacement, and also assesses whether using CCTV leads to the spread of crime prevention benefits. The authors found 44 evaluations. The studies were from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Norway and Sweden. Most of the studies (34) were from the United Kingdom.

This Campbell systematic review assesses the effects of psychosocial interventions for school refusal. The review summarizes the findings from eight studies.

This Campbell systematic review examines the effects of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) programmes on deforestation and poverty, and whether environmental and poverty reduction goals conflict with one another. The review summarizes evidence from 11 studies covering six PES programmes in four countries.

Sexual assault is a significant problem among adolescents and college students across the world. One promising strategy for preventing these assaults is the implementation of bystander sexual assault prevention programs, which encourage young people to intervene when witnessing incidents or warning signs of sexual assault. This review examines the effects bystander programs have on knowledge and attitudes concerning sexual assault and bystander behavior, bystander intervention when witnessing sexual assault or its warning signs, and participants’ rates of perpetration of sexual assault.

Youth misconduct and misbehavior is a normal part of adolescence and that misbehavior sometimes crosses the line from disruptive or problematic to delinquent. Nationally representative surveys of youth in the USA have indicated that minor delinquent behavior is normative, particularly for boys. The normative nature of minor delinquent behavior raises the question of how police should respond to minor delinquent behavior in a way that is corrective, but also avoids involving the youth in the criminal justice system beyond what will be effective in reducing future misbehavior.
Police diversion schemes are a collection of strategies police can apply as an alternative to court processing of youth. Diversion as an option is popular among law enforcement officers, as it provides an option between ignoring youth engaged in minor wrongdoing and formally charging such youth with a crime. Police-led diversion has the potential to to reduce reoffending by limiting the exposure of low-risk youth to potentially harmful effects of engagement with the criminal justice system.
This review examined whether police-led diversion and traditional processing of youth have different effects on rates of official delinquency.

Youth gang crime poses a serious problem for low and middle-income countries costing billions of dollars in harm, loss of life and social disruption. Preventive interventions are intended to stop crime before it occurs, either by preventing youth from joining gangs or by reducing recidivism by rehabilitating gang members outside of the criminal justice system. This review examines the effectiveness of these preventive interventions in achieving their aims, as well as identifying factors behind successful implementation in low and middle-income countries.

This Campbell systematic review assesses the effects of juvenile curfews on crime and victimization. The review summarizes findings from 12 studies. The search for this review was updated in March 2014, and the review published in March 2016.

Problem-oriented policing (POP) focuses police work on ‘problems’ as opposed to calls or crime incidents and it requires police to proactively develop response to crime and disorder problems based on a careful analysis of contributing factors. The approach has had a tremendous impact on American policing and is now widely implemented in the US and other countries. The classic implementation of POP follows the ‘SARA’ model of problem-solving (Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment).
This review assesses the effects of problem- oriented policing on crime and disorder based on the existing evaluation literature.

In the UK incidents of rape and sexual assaults are referred to a sexual assault referral centre (SARC). These are typically headed by forensic doctors who conduct forensic examinations, collecting and documenting findings and preparing statements for court when requested by the police. In the United States, the equivalent institution for SARCs are headed by sexual assault nurse examiners (SANE).
This review compares the reliability and efficacy of forensic nurse examiners (FNE) with that of doctors for the forensic examinations of rape and sexual assault complaints.

Scared straight programs involve organised visits to prison by juvenile delinquents or children at risk of committing crime, also called pre-delinquents.
Scared straight and similar programs are promoted as a crime prevention strategy, identifying children at risk of committing crime to discourage them from any future criminal conduct. This review assesses the effect of these programs on criminal behaviours by juvenile delinquents or pre-delinquents.

Effective policing requires voluntary public cooperation. Citizens are more likely to cooperate when they view the police as legitimate. This review assesses the direct and indirect benefits of interventions that use procedurally just dialogue to enhance police legitimacy.

Many, if not most, incarcerated criminals are drug-dependent. In the absence of effective substance abuse treatment, a high proportion of these drug-dependent criminals will return to crime once released. Incarceration-based drug treatment programs allow correctional facilities to use force to encourage abusers to engage in treatment -- many of who otherwise would not do so -- as well as limit the availability of drugs with sufficient time available to focus on treatment and introspection.
This review examines the effectiveness of incarceration-based drug treatment programs in reducing post-release recidivism and drug use.

Focused deterrence strategies tackle a particular crime problem by applying a varied
menu of sanctions (“pulling levers”) as well as focusing social services and community
resources on targeted offenders, and communicating with offenders about the
attention they are receiving. These strategies have been successful in reducing crime.

This review integrates findings from six experimental and 21 quasi-experimental studies that compare groups of treated sexual offenders with equivalent control groups. These studies tested whether treated sexual offenders differed from the control groups in sexual and other reoffending.

While there are many benefits from the internet, it is a potential site for abuse and victimisation. The prevalence of cyber abuse (activities such as cyber bullying, cyber stalking, cyber sexual solicitation, and cyber pornography) is a growing problem. This review examines the effectiveness of cyber abuse interventions in increasing knowledge about internet safety and decreasing risky online behaviour.

This systematic review examines the effectiveness of drug courts, including drug courts for juvenile and drunk driving (DWI) offenders, in reducing recidivism compared to the standard justice system. The review critically assesses these courts’ effects on recidivism in the short and long term. It also assesses the methodological soundness of the existing evidence, as well as the relationship between drug court features and effectiveness.

This Campbell systematic review examines the effects of focusing police crime prevention efforts on crime hot spots, and whether focused police actions at specific locations result in crime displacement (i.e. crime moving around the corner) or diffusion (i.e. crime reduction in surrounding areas) of crime control benefits. The review includes 19 studies covering 25 cases. Seventeen of the studies were conducted in the USA.

Face-to-face Restorative Justice Conferences (RJCs) between offenders and victims have a modest but highly cost-effective impact on reoffending. Victim's satisfaction with the handling of their cases is consistently higher among those who attend RJCs, compared to those dealt with solely by standard criminal justice processes, usually the courts.

School exclusion is associated with undesirable effects on developmental outcomes. It increases the likelihood of poor academic performance, antisocial behavior, and poor employment prospects. This school sanction disproportionally affects males, ethnic minorities, those who come from disadvantaged economic backgrounds, and those with special educational needs.
This review assesses the effectiveness of programmes to reduce the prevalence of exclusion

This Campbell systematic review examines the effects of closed circuit television (CCTV) on property crime and violent crime. The review reports on whether using CCTV results in crime displacement, and also assesses whether using CCTV leads to the spread of crime prevention benefits. The authors found 44 evaluations. The studies were from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Norway and Sweden. Most of the studies (34) were from the United Kingdom.

This Campbell systematic review examines the effects of interventions to deter corporate crime. The review examines the effectiveness of formal legal and administrative strategies to lower the risk of non-compliance. The authors summarized 106 studies of corporate crime prevention and control.

This Campbell systematic review compares effects of custodial and non-custodial sentences on reoffending. The authors found fourteen high-quality studies, including three randomised controlled trials and two natural experiments.

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